Moving East and West: An evaluation of South Africa’s foreign policy conundrum and prospects for inclusive development cooperation

Abstract

There are various challenges to foreign policy execution in South Africa. Disagreements over policy direction among political parties, factions, and interest groups may be the most significant of them. As a result, South Africa is at a loss about which partners to choose between traditional Western allies or eastern partners like China and other BRICS partners. This chapter explores how the discord in policy positions and consequent geopolitical implications affect South Africa's international development cooperation agenda. The study adopts a qualitative literature review to draw its conclusion. Theoretically, the chapter leans on Group Theory to guide its research and conclusion. The study shows significant disparities in foreign policy adoption, leading to significant geopolitical and domestic problems. Political parties, foreign actors and elements like NGOs and other interest groups all have disagreements. The chapter makes the argument that these disagreements and consequent delays cause major challenges for South Africa’s development cooperation agenda. In this regard, the chapter makes various recommendations on how South Africa can navigate this conundrum while balancing relations between both Eastern and Western partners for a sustainable development path. Furthermore, it is also recommended that South Africa set a foreign policy agenda that surpasses partisan and party-political interests to minimise these effects. This chapter seeks to contribute to wider discussions on international development cooperation in the changing geopolitical and North-South relations.

Keywords: {'name': 'Foreign policy, BRICS, international cooperation, geo-politics, sustainable development.'}

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Hulisani Takalani
University of Venda

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